394 A HISTORY OF FISHES 



approaching the surface at night. Each drift net is a simple 

 stretch of strong cotton netting, about fifty or sixty yards in 

 length and about fourteen yards deep, the upper edge of which 

 is buoyed with corks or "pellets" and the lower edge usually 

 weighted shghtly with lead. As night approaches the drifters 

 start to shoot their nets with the tide, "fleets" of as many 

 as eighty-five nets being used at one time from a single vessel, 

 so that a complete wall of netting, perhaps three miles in length, 

 is hanging vertically in the water, either at the surface or a few 

 fathoms down. The ship then drifts for several hours with the 

 tide, with one end of the wall of netting attached. The mesh 

 of the net is so constructed that the fish is able to push its head 

 through but not its body: once the gill-covers are through it is 

 impossible for the fish to release its head, and in the dark vast 

 numbers of fish swim into the nets and are strangled. At dawn 

 the nets are hauled in to the ship and the catch shaken out of 

 their meshes. 



Lining is a method of fishing used to catch such demersal 

 fish as the Cod and Halibut, the Cod fisheries carried on in this 

 way on the Newfoundland banks being world famous. The 

 old hand-line is now of little commercial importance and has 

 been superseded by the long line, which may be more than 

 four thousand yards in length, with hooks attached at regular 

 intervals to short "snoods" about two feet long. On a large 

 steam liner the number of hooks on a single line may be anything 

 from one thousand to five thousand five hundred. The bait 

 varies considerably, including whelks, mussels, squid, and 

 herrings. The lines may be shot in the morning or afternoon, 

 and, unlike the hand lines, are left quite unattended for several 

 hours before being hauled in. 



The flesh of fishes, as might be expected, is a highly perishable 

 commodity, and very soon after death begins to undergo certain 

 changes, at first not undesirable, but which, if allowed to 

 continue, render it unfit for human consumption. The following 

 table may be of interest to many, and shows some of the more 

 important features distinguishing a fresh fish from one that is 

 stale or putrid. 



Fresh Stale 



I. The flesh is firm and elas- i. "Rigor mortis" has 

 tic, exhibiting a condition passed oflf. 

 known as " rigor mortis." 



